


The Crystal Oasis

by xRWBY (xtracurricular)



Series: The Prologues [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Future Fic, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, seamonkeys if you squint real hard, xRWBY's Huntress AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 23:44:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19161436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xtracurricular/pseuds/xRWBY
Summary: Sun took watch first, pouring over his hand-drawn map and old, preexisting ones. He and Neptune had never been this far into the desert before, and Sun was determined to map it out completely. Plus, there was a chance he would find some sort of Oasis where the people of Menagerie could settle. Gods knew they needed the extra space.Sun and Neptune find something in the desert.This is part of a series I'm calling the Prologues (I guess?) I have a big AU in the works that I plan to write, but to provide context for the beginning of that fic I am going to write a set of prologues. (Prequels?) This group of fics will act as a lead-up to the Big Ol' Thang(tm) I'm going to post here eventually. I'm calling that xRWBY's Huntress AU (because I dont have a good name for it but thats ok.)





	The Crystal Oasis

Sun brought a canteen to his lips, drinking deep. The air was dry, and the land was parched. It still reminded him of Vacuo, no matter how many times Blake told him it wasn’t the same. The only thing that wasn’t similar was the color, red rocks and coarse sand in ruddy orange. And unlike Vacuo’s variety of cacti and sparse savanna, there were pockets of grasses seemingly in places they shouldn’t be able to survive.

And well… There was one other difference.

“Bro, bro, bro we have company, pack it up!” Neptune’s panicked voice was accompanied by the shuffling of his feet through the loose sand as he scrambled to disassemble their makeshift camp.  
“Not again, dammit!” Sun stuffed his binoculars and his canteen into his belt as he tore down the tarp shielding him from the desert heat. “What direction, Nep!?” 

“South! Err, south-east-ish!” 

He stuffed the tarp in a canvas bag and disassembled the legs that were once holding it up, stuffing them in the bag too, hoping he wasn’t actually ripping anything. 

“South-east “ **ish**?” Sun mocked, the humor in his voice overpowered by his own nerves.

“Shut up, just turn around!” Neptune fired his rifle as Sun slung the bag over his shoulder and pulled out his staff, flourishing it as he whirled around.

The Grimm were practically on top of them, a dozen or so tiny Death Stalkers. As harmless as that might sound, they were more of an absolute bitch to fight than their bigger counterparts. These ones liked to swarm, and they were fast. Sun leapt forward and splattered one with the butt of his staff before quickly changing position, dipping low in order to avoid the scorpion asshole that tried to jump him from behind.

“Run, dude, there’s too many!” Neptune shouted as he staggered back, struggling to land even one shot, as the Death Stalkers stung and clawed at his boots, narrowly missing him. Sun quickly glanced at the camp, making sure they didn’t leave anything essential. Satisfied that they didn’t, Sun raced over to Neptune and swung at the Grimm closest to him, launching it away from him.

“Go, go, go!” Spinning Neptune around with his momentum, Sun sprinted forward. Neptune sped after him. Sun could hear Neptune wheezing beside him, he looked over his shoulder to see his eyes wide and filled with fear. He slowed his pace to match Neptune’s own. “Hey, Nep, come on, get it together man, just keep running!”

Neptune’s eyes flitted to his partner, and he gritted his teeth, taking deeper breaths. His eyes closed for a moment, and when they opened, he seemed to have calmed himself.

“Right, come on.” Neptune sped up slightly and Sun risked a glance behind them. The Death Stalkers were hot on his tail. Ok, time for plan B. Sun slapped Neptune’s shoulder a few times.

“Shock and Awe, let’s go!” Neptune looked over his shoulder at Sun in disbelief.

“Right now!? We’re running, you gotta be standing still for that!”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan, just tell me you have dust loaded in your trident!” Neptune fiddled around with his gun for a moment, checking the ammunition. 

“I do, but for fuck’s sake I hope you know what you’re doing!”

“Don’t worry about me, but you have to be ready when I say ready!”

“Got it, I guess!?”

“Ready?” Neptune transformed his weapon into a three-pronged trident, gripping it with two hands as he continued to run.

“Shit!”

“Taking that as a yes!” Sun then lept into the air and flipped backwards, clearing the horde of tiny Grimm. Just before he landed in a crouch on the sandy ground, his hair and tail began to glow with the activation of his semblance. Two golden spectral clones spawned running next to Neptune.

The clones leaned forward with their hands extended, a foothold for Neptune. He gulped and took a running jump forward onto their hands and propelled himself into the air. 

In what would only be a fraction of a second, Neptune spun into a corkscrew roll, parallel above the Death Stalkers. At the peak height of the jump he thrust out with the trident and activated the dust canister attached to its head. As the tip of the trident grazed the tallest of the lot, a shockwave of electricity struck the Grimm, arcing through them, and frying every single one them into a crispy cloud of dust. 

Neptune landed in a roll, like they had endlessly practiced.

“See, fuckin’ nailed it.” Sun beamed. 

Neptune sighed dramatically in relief and sat down in the sand, panting. For once, he was glad he was so damn good at running. After a few moments of rest and a few sips from their canteens, the two Huntsmen stood up and attempted to find another place to set up camp.

-x-

They didn’t stop moving for a while and decided to climb a waist-high escarpment of rock to set up camp this time, figuring it wouldn’t matter if the Grimm could see them, as long as they were able to see the approaching Grimm. It was almost sunset, and the two of them hastily set up their tent and tarp.

Sun took watch first, pouring over his hand-drawn map and old, preexisting ones. He and Neptune had never been this far into the desert before, and Sun was determined to map it out completely. Plus, there was a chance he would find some sort of Oasis where the people of Menagerie could settle. Gods knew they needed the extra space.

The best cities in Vacuo were based around Oases discovered hundreds of years ago, and though Sun never thought of himself as the explorer type, he was committed to this goal he had. Transform the desert into a home for his people, a home for the Faunus. 

When he got too tired to see straight anymore, he woke up Neptune, who was always cranky about being woken up before the sun rose. Neptune took watch, and Sun got some sleep, his brain stopping its endless journey though the possibilities of what could be out there, at least momentarily.

-x-

The next day came and went in a blur, the landscape was the same barren sand and rocks for miles. After tomorrow, they would have to turn around and head back to base camp, their supplies would run out otherwise, an unfortunate side-effect of being the only people for miles, and having the only source of water for miles. Presumably.

As they started the last day of their expedition, Sun realized they would be reaching the approximate dead center of the desert if they kept going west. He and Neptune agreed that would be a good point to end on.

Around midday, winds picked up, and they had to put on goggles and face-covers. Sand whipped around them and whistled in the wind. As they trekked farther, the winds only got worse.

“Sun, I can barely see a mile ahead, we should just call it a day!” Neptune shouted over the sound of the wind, he was even more muffled by the scarf covering his nose and mouth.

“Aw, come on man, we’re almost there, we’ve got like five more miles at most!” Sun stopped walking and turned his head toward him, hoping the pleading tone of his voice penetrated the wind. Neptune put his hands on his hips and his shoulders rose and fell in time with his chest in what Sun assumed was a sigh he couldn’t hear.

“Okay, fine, but if we die, I’m never gonna forgive you!”

“What does that even mean!?”

“I don’t know, I just don’t like our chances of survival!”

“We will be **fine** , Nep.”

“What’s fine!?”

“Never mind, just start walking!” Sun turned away from him and kept heading in the direction of the desert’s center. Neptune kept pace with him, but Sun could tell he wasn’t happy about it by the way he was crossing his arms and furrowing his brows a touch.

-x-

He almost considered relenting and turning back after another hour, but the wind suddenly stopped, and the airborne sand began to settle. Sun and Neptune placed their goggles back up onto their foreheads and pulled down their scarves as they pushed forward. Then Neptune tripped, and absolutely ate it, face first into the ground.

“Fuck!” Sounded his muffled complaint. Sun did his best to hold back a laugh as he helped him up.

“What did you even trip on?”

“I dunno,” He glanced down “a clump of grass.”

“Heh. Wait…” Sun knelt down and examined the patch Neptune tripped over. Dry grass, but among it, a tiny desert flower; white petals with pink edges. There was a flower kind of like that where he grew up, but that was central Vacuo, and he was pretty sure it was usually in someone’s plant-pot. 

Some things started to fall into place in his head. Too busy thinking, he stood up and began walking, following tiny clumps of grass.

“Hey, hello? Sun, what’s up?” Neptune trailed after him even though Sun didn’t respond right away.

“Call me crazy, but I think we found somethin’, Nep.” 

“W- okay, what did we find exactly?”

As Sun continued, the air around them slowly changed, it became slightly cooler, and burned less. He quickened his pace and soon the clumps of grass grew bigger, closer together, and filled with those little flowers. Neptune began to catch onto what Sun was thinking and laughed out loud, shaking Sun from behind by the shoulders.

“Dude, did we really find this!?” The excitement in Neptune’s voice was paralleled in Sun’s expression as he turned around to face him.

“Race ya to the center.” Sun said, before he bolted, almost delirious with the thrill of their discovery. Neptune was hot on his heels, whooping into the air. 

Sun felt the ground around him disappear too late as he started to fall feet first off of a sheer cliff. Had Neptune not thrown is hands around his waist in that moment, he would definitely have been a goner. He fell backward onto Neptune and both Huntsmen let out an “Oof!” as they landed hard on their backs.  
He rolled off of Neptune and laughed nervously, his body surging with adrenaline from the near-fall.

“Nice save?”

Neptune looked furious, exasperated, and terrified all at the same time. It was quite the look, Sun nearly flinched. Neptune’s mouth opened and closed as he tried to say something, but he was unable to form any sentence that would encapsulate his feelings.

Sun sat there awkwardly in the thick grass, heart still pounding. He shivered from the sweat cooling on his body, and his tail curled in on itself, telegraphing his discomfort. That’s when Neptune nearly tackled him in a hug, the tightest he’d ever given.

“Sun, you motherfucker!” is all Neptune could get out, muffled by sun’s shoulder. From the crack in his voice, Sun could tell he was about to cry, and for some reason that made him chuckle uncontrollably. Neptune crying over him was something he never thought about. But it was funny, somehow, even after all the shit Sun put him through, Neptune really still cared that much about him.

“It’s not fucking funny, asshole!” Neptune’s indignation just made Sun laugh harder. Neptune slapped him upside the head.

“Ha-ha—Ow!” Sun pushed him off, still smiling. Neptune glared up at him but as much as he tried to maintain a hurt expression, Sun’s smile was irresistible, infectious. Neptune shook his head, trying to shake the smile off his face.

“Watch where you’re fuckin’ going next time, **please.** ” Neptune begged.  
“Alright, alright, cool it, I’ll be careful.”

They both sighed. After a few moments, Sun’s curiosity got the best of him and he fully surveyed the view behind him. The cliff was indeed steep and seemed to wrap around the horizon like they were one side of a valley. Though, as Sun examined it further, he could clearly see it was a complete circle; a crater?

His eyes followed one of the opposite cliff edges to the lowest point, but it was blocked by his side’s edge. He would have to get closer in order to see it all. When he did, when he could see the bottom, everything suddenly got complicated. Very, very complicated.

There was water in the center of the crater, a small lake. But what surrounded it was what made his heart jump into his throat. The sunlight above glinted off the surface of each and every one of the exposed Dust crystals that absolutely coated the floor of the crater. Red, blue, yellow, green, and white…

The variety in the natural deposits was staggering. This never happened, Dust deposits varied depending on their location, but starkly different, raw, elemental Dust types never grew next to each other. Until now at least. On top of that, this was the largest concentration of Dust on the surface Sun had ever seen. He grew up in Vacuo, saw Dust mines on the news every day in his youth, and each one paled in comparison to this. How much more could be beneath the surface?

Neptune walked up next to him and whistled as he stared down into the crater. He put his hand on Sun’s shoulder, as if to steady himself.

“Sun…”

“Yeah…”

“That’s um…”

“Yep.”

“If anyone finds out this is here…”

“Mmhm.” Sun tore his eyes away from the dazzling display of raw power before him. He looked at Neptune who felt his gaze and looked back at him. “Swear to me, right now, that you have no idea what’s down there. You’ve never even been here.”

“Done, haven’t a goddamn clue.”

“About what?”

“Nothin’. And you?”

“I don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Cool.”

“Cool.”

Slowly, Sun turned around. Swearing to secrecy, he dreaded the future. Inevitably, somehow, someone will find out about what they discovered here. Then they’ll be fucked. Thoroughly and completely. But if Sun could delay that outcome long enough to get the right people in on it, Menagerie might stand a chance against the plague of greed that took Vacuo long ago.

And oh boy. 

Blake is gonna love this.

**Author's Note:**

> For more info on my dumb ideas and Aus, you can go here https://xtracurricular-rwby.tumblr.com/ where I sometimes post things and will (eventually) update the background for my AUs. Also, I'd like to thank my obsession with Guild Wars 2 for the title, it just sounds better than what I had there before.


End file.
